A polling company says Canadians sympathize with farmers, are willing to pay more income tax to fund farm subsidies, and believe government has an obligation to support farmers.
“(The) farm sector continues to garner impressive public support,” Ekos Research Associates told senior Agriculture Canada planners in a June 4 briefing.
Polling has found that “farm and agricultural issues” rank eighth in a list of priorities for government behind health, education, child poverty, the environment and unemployment.
But when asked to decide whether to support or ignore farmers in trouble, 69 percent said government should do “whatever it has to in order to ensure the survival of the family farm in Canada, even if this means that we will all have to pay a little more in income tax.”
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The Western Producer has obtained a draft of the presentation Ekos and its president Frank Graves made to the department. The government has not made the poll results public, although earlier this summer, officials were telling some journalists that there was evidence of declining public support for farm subsidies.
That view apparently came from an Ekos report on the results of 12 spring focus groups organized in six cities across Canada, involving more than 100 people.
Members of those groups showed less sympathy than did the more general opinion polling.
“Little evidence to suggest broad urban support for a major farm financial relief package,” said the Ekos presentation on the focus groups, which involved more detailed discussion than answering polling questions.
“Not particularly swayed by the arguments presented by the farm lobby.”
However, the more general poll results showed strong public admiration for farmers.
Asked to rate the ethical standards of various occupations, respondents rated farmers third, just below volunteers and doctors but above police officers, scientists, bureaucrats and business executives.
The polls also showed strong public support for spending money to teach farmers more business skills and helping them find other employment.
And they showed a growing public emphasis on food safety and preserving the environment, two key messages that the federal government has been emphasizing.
Farm leaders who were lobbying for government attention on Parliament Hill in the first week of October welcomed news of the public opinion support as evidence that the government is wrong when it attempts to describe a growing public fatigue with farm support.
Several weeks ago, the Canadian Alliance produced its own poll results showing strong public sympathy for farmers and a willingness to support them in the face of higher foreign subsidies.
Manitoba Conservative MP Rick Borotsik said in early October that the polls are proof the Liberals are missing the point.
“According to a June 4 Ekos poll commissioned by the federal government, 69 percent of Canadians believe that the government should do whatever it takes, even if it means paying more taxes to ensure the survival of the family farm,” he said in Parliament.
“It is clear the will of Canadians is there. Now, it is up to the political will of this government.”
